We can’t wait! The sequel to “The Best Man” arrives before Thanksgiving this year! After nearly 15 years apart, Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Monica Calhoun, Melissa De Sousa and Regina Hall reprise their career-launching roles in The Best Man Holiday, the long-awaited next chapter to the film that ushered in a new era of comedy. When the college friends finally reunite over the Christmas holidays, they will discover just how easy it is for long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be ignited. Malcolm D. Lee returns to write and direct this sequel to his directorial debut. Sean Daniel (The Mummy franchise) will produce alongside Lee for The Sean Daniel Company. Watch #TheBestManHoliday trailer below and see the film in theaters everywhere November 15! Photos and Video Courtesy Universal Pictures
Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl will make his directorial debut — and a smart tax write-off — at the Sundance Film Festival with the premiere of Sound City , a documentary about the legendary Van Nuys, California recording studio where Nirvana’s Nevermind , Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours were recorded among many influential classics . If you’re a Foo fan like me, or you saw Grohl’s controversial acceptance for Best Rock Performance at the 2012 Grammys, then you know the guy loves analog recording. As he said then, “It’s not about what goes on in a computer” that makes great rock ‘n’ roll but the “human element.” Well, he took a lot of crap for that speech, in part, because Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light album — which led to the Grammy — was recorded on all analog equipment but then went through a digital post-production process. But I have a feeling that Grohl will get his point across in Sound City , which tells the story of the funky studio with the magic vibe. Sound City ceased to operate as a recording studio in 2011, but still houses sound stages. Grohl now owns the Neve 8028 analog recording console that was instrumental to its allure. I’m sure it helped him research the picture. Check out Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks and all the other rock greats in the clip. Related Story: Dave Grohl’s Sound City Love Letter: Read What’s Behind the Rocker’s Directing Debut Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
MTV News takes a stab at what secrets the horror flick’s fourth installment will reveal. By Kevin P. Sullivan “Paranormal Activity 4” Photo: Paramount Pictures
Wu-Tang Clan member opens up to MTV News about what he learned on the set of his directorial debut, which hits theaters November 2. By Rob Markman RZA Photo: MTV News
It’s no secret that ladies love Ryan Gosling , but now guys have a reason to like the Blue Valentine (2010) star, too. Gosling is re-teaming with his Drive (2011) co-star Christina Hendricks for his directorial debut, the “modern fairy tale neo-noir” How to Catch a Monster . Gosling apparently charmed Hendricks into accepting a starring role in the film by sending her the script in a ” cool box with an interesting little key, and cool artwork in it ,” as she explained to Vulture at TIFF this weekend. But that’s not the SKINteresting part of the story– when pressed to explain more about the ” very surreal club ” where her character works in the film, Hendricks hesitated, then finally admitted that it was a ” fetish club .” She refused to reveal any further details, but we kind of prefer it that way. Will she be popping balloons? Dressed in latex? Getting her toes licked? Wielding a bull whip? No matter what, she’s going to make a select group of people very happy–just hope that it’s your paraphilia she’s referring to. Let your imagination go wild with pics and clips of Christina Hendricks right here at MrSkin.com!
New Zealand native Melanie Lynskey finds her way to the spotlight – at long last – playing a woman, stuck in a sadly hilarious vortex of post-divorce depression, who’s jolted out of her early mid-life ennui by an electrifying affair with a younger man ( GIRLS ’ Christopher Abbott) in Todd Luiso’s Hello I Must Be Going . It’s an extraordinary dual capacity for deeply-felt pathos and comedy that Lynskey possesses and showcases, often simultaneously, as Amy Minsky; for Lynskey, one of the most genuine actors in the game, it was the kind of role that’s come along all too infrequently in the nearly two decades since her assured debut at the age of 15 in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures . “It was kind of a dream that I would find a part that had so much for me to do, but it’s so rare,” Lynskey said over iced coffees in Los Angeles. Longtime devotees know her well from Heavenly Creatures , in which she and Kate Winslet played a pair of real-life teen murderesses, or from her supporting turns in films like Ever After , Detroit Rock City , and Coyote Ugly ; when we first met in Seattle a few months prior, a fan recognized her as Reese Witherspoon’s old classmate in Sweet Home Alabama (“Baby in a bar!”). But while she’s tasted mainstream success, the soft-spoken Lynskey, whose wicked sense of humor complements her humility (she’s truly one of the most grounded actors around, as evidenced by her Twitter musings ), seems far more at home in the creatively-fulfilling climes of independent film. Three years into her tenure as the daffy, delightful Rose on Two and a Half Men , she asked to be let out of her contract so she could make films while coming back as-needed in a recurring role. In the time since, she’s turned in some of her best, most acclaimed work in potent supporting turns like Away We Go , Up In The Air , The Informant , and Win Win . “The show was so successful and I could see a crossroads,” she explained. “It was like, this way you’ll be a millionaire and one of the people on this show, and this way you’re not going to make a lot of money but you’re going to be able to build something that’s a little more interesting.” In Hello I Must Be Going that choice paid off not just with her first starring role, it also prompted Lynskey to examine her own journey in contrast to Amy’s vulnerable emotional life. “You come home and everything looks beautiful. It gave me a real appreciation for happiness, and for my friends, for interests that I have, and the fact that I do have a life that I really love.” Below, dive in as Melanie Lynskey takes us into her work on Hello I Must Be Going , her reaction to male critics who’ve criticized Amy’s physicality, lessons learned on the set of Heavenly Creatures , her experience on – and pulling away from – Two and a Half Men , her favorite film critics, David Wain’s upcoming They Came Together , and the theme songs she uses to get into character. One of the great things about Hello I Must Be Going is that audiences get to see you front and center – they know your work, we’ve seen you do comedy and drama, but this is a vehicle that allows you to combine those talents. Were you looking for something of this more intimate scale, or these particular chords to play? It was kind of a dream that I would find a part that had so much for me to do, but it’s so rare. We made this movie for no money, but even those tiny, tiny movies – movie stars are doing them, famous people. So much of the stuff that Michelle Williams does – can you imagine doing Wendy & Lucy ? What a dream! Or Blue Valentine ? She’s so amazing. But what a great thing to get to create something like that. It seems performers do have to turn to the independent world to find projects like that. How did they find you for this film? Yeah, I think so. I just got asked – I was in Toronto and my agent was like, do you want to come do this reading for the Sundance Institute? They were doing a staged reading of it in front of a little audience. I read the script and said, “Yes – I will fly myself back!” I loved it so much. At the time I thought I’d just be doing the reading, I didn’t anticipate having a future with it. Who was at the initial staged reading? There were not a lot of the same actors. Dane DeHaan read Chris Abbott’s part, and he was wonderful. There were a lot of good actors in it. It was fun. We worked on it for a day and Todd [Luiso] directed it. It just went really great, the energy was really wonderful. After that reading they said, “We want to make it with you,” and at the time with Dane, and then they tried to get money that way – but they realized they had to ask for less and less money with me in it. [Laughs] Eventually they got some money and stuck with me and I’m so grateful. Your character is stuck in a post-divorce depression but there’s a real humorous undercurrent to her, and so much of that is expressed in your face – in your expressions, your reactions to these oblivious people around you. There’s a tone to the script where you can just tell how Amy is feeling, and it was written from her perspective. There weren’t many reaction cues in the script but Sarah [Koskoff] and are really similar, the writer and I, so that was good – we have a similar take on things and were both excited that we wanted to do the same thing with it. Chris balances the film opposite you – there’s a quality to his eyes that makes you feel you’re peering into his soul, just looking at him. That’s such a perfect way to put it. It’s so true. There’s something about him that’s open and accessible but still mysterious; he has a really interesting quality, and his performance is so spontaneous. It feels off the cuff. He’s such a great person, a sweet, sweet person. Kind and lovely – I got so lucky with him. He seems like he’s always perceiving the world around him. He is, and he’s not judging. It’s nice. There’s a nice quality to him where he’s sort of scoping people out and watching people but he’s not too cool for school, even though he’s very cool. [Laughs] It was funny when I started watching GIRLS – I was like, Oh my god, he’s playing such a goofball! It’s so different from him. Was there much time to get to know him before you started shooting? No. It was crazy, because the other actor was going to do the movie and the casting process was kind of quick after he had to drop out. I remember Todd saying to me one day, “Do you want to watch this audition tape? I keep thinking about this one person…” and when he showed me Chris’s audition tape I started crying. I cried with relief, mostly, like, “Oh thank God they have somebody good!” I was so afraid! That’s a good point – there are so many elements up in the air in the making of a movie. And the age difference between the characters – she’s 35, he’s 19 – sort of requires two performers who can meet in the middle . It was important to me that it wasn’t all about the age difference in a creepy way, and Chris has a maturity to him which I think is important. The characters are at such similar points in their lives; “Who am I, and what am I going to do with the rest of my life?” So I didn’t want it to be sketchy. They cast Chris and I was in Connecticut working with Todd and Sarah and we sort of just awkwardly met each other. He had to leave to go shoot something and they were like, “He’s cute, right? Did you like him?” It was like a weird set-up. “He’s tall!” This was a really quick shoot, which means that you get what you get while you’re there. It’s always interesting to me to just kind of go along for the ride. Sometimes you come across somebody with whom your ideas don’t mesh and it’s an unfortunate kind of clash, but that doesn’t happen very often. What I like seeing is what somebody wants. Every experience is so different, but you never know until you start. Actors often say the gratifying part of the process is the work they do on set, within scenes. Do you feel that way, and to what extent did this particular shoot do that? It’s interesting. It was somewhat of a transition period for me, even though I wasn’t aware of it at the time. It’s interesting to play a character who’s asking, “What does the rest of my life hold for me? I’ve made these choices and I sort of thought everything was going to go one way, and what would happen if it all got turned upside down?” It was interesting to put yourself in that space of having nothing and feeling nothing and just not knowing what was going to come at all. In a lot of those scenes, the toughest stuff for me in those scenes is where she’s very depressed, because it’s just so horrible to sit in that, you know? But it’s hopeful. It’s an interesting thing as a person to spend a day where you’re just letting yourself feel awful. You come home and everything looks beautiful. It gave me a real appreciation for happiness, and for my friends, and for interests that I have and the fact that I do have a life that I really love. It’s good that you are able to pull yourself from that darkness. Not everybody has that, and it seems like one of the tougher aspects of being an actor. I was kind of trained to do that on Heavenly Creatures . It was pretty crazy. They were so worried about taking this 15-year-old who’s never done a movie before and being like, “Hey, cry all day and go crazy and see you tomorrow!” They were so concerned about me losing my mind, so there was a whole process at the end of the day of getting rid of everything. The woman who played my mother was kind of my acting teacher – she was helping me with technique and stuff, and she would brush me off and brush the emotion away. It was really great, and it was a good lesson to learn. You don’t need to take it home with you, and it’s better if you don’t. You were 15 when you made that film – at what point did you realize Heavenly Creatures was the real beginning of a career, that it would launch you into the world? It’s funny, because it doesn’t feel like it did. [Laughs] There was a point when I realized it was not going to. But it was a start. I think when I got an agent in America and I was like, “Oh my god, people really saw this movie.” But the progression was so slow, there was no kind of – here are movies, and here’s other opportunities! It was just like, “Nice job.” I mean, I went to the Venice Film Festival – that was incredible, that was crazy. I had so many surreal moments. Yesterday I was at high school studying for my English exam, and today I’m having lunch with Uma Thurman and Harvey Weinstein. And Quentin Tarantino, talking and talking. It was amazing. Heavenly Creatures is a fascinating film to look at now, just to revisit this point when three careers – yours, Kate Winslet, and Peter Jackson, whose films to that point had been very different – sprang and took off. It’s so amazing. It’s absolutely no surprise to me that Peter has done what he’s done and Kate has done what she’s done. But it was kind of a crazy thing to be a high school student and do this movie with people who had such a fire in them. How did your classmates react to the film? Some people were nice. I had friends who were like, “The movie was really beautiful,” but then most people were like, “I could see your tits.” [Laughs] I was like, yep, you could. “You kissed a girl!” I did. But that was fine. It was just a little alienating.
Call it the zen of Ryan. During a roundtable interview with Ryan Gosling and filmmaker Derek Cianfrance for their latest film, The Place Beyond The Pines , I asked the actor if he felt that the media focused too much on the more superficial aspects of his acting career — remember the hubub over Bradley Cooper being chosen over him as People magazine’s sexiest man of the year last fall? — when he keeps proving himself to be one of the finest actors working today. “I’m not really allowed to have an opinion so I just choose to not think about it,” Gosling said. “It is what it is.” After memorable performances last year in Drive , Ides of March and Crazy, Stupid Love , Gosling is riveting in The Place Beyond The Pines as a former stunt motorcyclist who turns to bank-robbing to support a son he fathered. Although the film has yet to secure a distributor, the buzz at the festival on Saturday night was that it was only a matter of time. During the roundtable interview — more of which we’ll post tomorrow — Gosling and Cianfrance, who previously worked together on the 2010 heartwrencher Blue Valentine , did not look like they were worried about their film reaching a wider audience. Asked what made the actor special, Cianfrance sounded mostly sincere when he called Gosling a “magic person who makes things better,” adding: “We’ve all seen him save people from getting hit by a car, and we’ve all seen him break up fights in the city. He makes the world a better place. And that’s what he does in a movie. He makes me a better filmmaker and everyone around him better.” In response to the same question, the deadpan Gosling replied: “I look like Derek.” Gosling declined to reveal the plot of his directorial debut, How to Catch A Monster , during the interview, but, elsewhere in Toronto, the star of his movie, Christina Hendricks was spilling the beans to Vulture . The actress said she portrays a single mother “supporting two children and trying to provide a home for them ” who finds herself working a “very surreal” fetish club “that gets me into a sort of predicament” while her two boys discover an underground city. Sounds like Fifty Shades of Grey meets City of Ember . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Are exorcisms culturally specific? The concept behind The Possession , a solid, Jewish-inflected B-movie riff on The Exorcist from director Ole Bornedal , can’t help but leave you wondering. Sure, a Catholic priest can attempt to take care of a demon, but when your child’s inhabited by a dybbuk — a malevolent spirit from Jewish folklore — you might need someone who can specialize. At one point in the film, frantic father Clyde Brenek ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ) drives a few hundred miles from the suburb in which he, his ex-wife Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick) and two children live to Borough Park, Brooklyn, to locate a rebbe who can help his family. It’s a supernatural argument for the benefit of living in more diverse communities. The dybbuk in question has been captured and imprisoned in the old, engraved box that Clyde buys at a yard sale for his youngest daughter Emily (Natasha Calis). The audience has already seen the muttering entity, which is able to inflict physical harm regardless of whether its victims open the box, wreak havoc on its previous owner, but Emily sees only a mysterious find with which she can furnish her empty room in her dad’s new house. Bornedal is a Danish director who’s gone back and forth between Hollywood and his homeland. He ended up remaking his own theatrical debut — a 1994 thriller about a Copenhagen law student working as a late-shift watchman at a morgue — into the identically titled and inevitably not as good 1997 film Nightwatch with Ewan McGregor. His specialty is putting an arch, unexpected twist on genre in films such as The Substitute, in which a 6th grade class realizes their chipper new teacher is an alien, and Just Another Love Story, a noir in which a married man allows himself to be mistaken for the fiancé of a wealthy woman who’s suffering from memory loss after an accident. The narrative running alongside the paranormal events unfolding in The Possession is about divorce and how it can affect children. While teenager daughter Hannah (Madison Davenport) deals with her parents’ breakup and her mother’s subsequent new relationship with orthodontist Brett (Grant Show) with disaffected detachment, Emily still holds on to a tremulous hope that the two will get back together. When she does figure out how to open the box, which turns out to be filled with strange keepsakes, dead moths and a creepy, foggy old mirror, the behavioral changes brought on by the dybbuk are interpreted by those in her life as an adolescent response to the domestic shakeup. Emily grows moody and distant, she spends a lot of time in her room and she acts out at school. Her mother takes her to a child psychologist, not an exorcist. The Possession is produced by Sam Raimi, and, at its best, has some of the throwback appeal of Raimi’s last theatrical release, Drag Me to Hell . Its intent is not ironic, but its creepiness, which includes eyeballs rolling back in their sockets, clouds of insects appearing around the house and a little girl suddenly speaking like a guttural adult, is the kind that provokes nervous giggles and the clutching of the person next to you, not nightmares. When Clyde tracks his feral demon-daughter through the bowels of a hospital, the audience at my screening let out a knowing sound as he approached an open door leading to a dark room — and let out pleased laughter when he used the paltry light of his cell phone to see just what sort of worst-case stuff was stored in there. Morgan gives a sturdy performance as a man whose career as a college basketball coach has taken precedence over his family, and who’s only now realizing that he’s about to lose those he loves as a result. But it’s Calis who steals the show as the possessed girl: She moves between ominous, dead-eyed glares and flickers of vulnerability, letting slip some foreboding tears right before the dybbuk makes her do something awful. Also showing off an unexpected screen presence is the musician Matisyahu, who plays the soft-spoken and slightly unconventional son of the rebbe from who Clyde seeks help. Tall, thin and quietly authoritative, Matisyahu’s character Tzadok comes with Clyde when no one else will help him because he believe it’s his duty to save a life when given the opportunity. He provides a nice alternative to the Father Merrin type — you know, the kind of guy who has no patience for hugging things out until the whole getting-the-dybbuk-back-in-the-box ceremony is taken care of. And there’s no better time to watch Matisyahu try than the current dog days of August. This variation on the demon child subgenre has enough of the familiar and the new to be a decently good time at the movies. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Ryan Gosling is graduating from actor/coloring book muse to writer-director with his directorial debut, How To Catch A Monster , from his own script – and he’s recruited Drive co-star Christina Hendricks to play the lead. So what’s the Baby Goose’s first foray behind the camera about? Described as a “modern day fairytale” with elements of “fantasy, noir, and suspense,” Monster sounds like a cousin of sorts to Nicholas Winding Refn ‘s Drive , which followed Gosling’s coiled-up Driver in a seedy tour through Los Angeles. Hendricks co-starred in Drive as Blanche, the pouty femme fatale who gets wrapped up in a job gone wrong before taking a memorable powder in a motel bathroom. Monster , produced by Marc Platt and Adam Siegel (two of the producers on Drive ), will be courting buyers at the Toronto Film Festival next month, with filming to start next spring. Per press release, via Indiewire: ” How To Catch a Monster weaves elements of fantasy, noir, and suspense into a modern day fairytale. Set against the surreal dreamscape of a vanishing city, Billy, a single mother of two, is swept into a macabre and dark fantasy underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Both Billy and Bones must dive deep into the mystery, if their family is to survive.” [ Indiewire ]
